Pyramica wheeleri (M. R. Smith 1944)

Dacetini, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia

Range

Full Range: Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela.

Costa Rican Range: Atlantic lowlands (La Selva Biological Station).

Identification

Mandible short and curving downward in profile; lateral head capsule with the antennal scrobe mostly or entirely smooth and shining; propodeal spines present(former Glamyromyrmex); leading edge of scape lacking erect hairs; disc of postpetiole in dorsal view not U-shaped or V-shaped, without a deeply concave anterior face; spongiform tissue present on ventral surface of postpetiole; color dark brown to black; face and vertex completely lacking erect setae; head in side view convex above and below, not flattened. Also see Bolton (2000:164).

Natural History

Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999).

This species inhabits the forest floor of lowland rainforest. It is known from few collections. The type specimens were collected on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, and two collections have been made at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. One of the La Selva collections was a worker in a Winkler sample of sifted litter from the forest floor, and the other was a presumed nest series (dealate queen and several workers) from a Berlese extraction of a litter/soil core. Brandao (1991) reports the species from Venezuela.

Bolton, B. 2000. The ant tribe Dacetini, with a revision of the Strumigenys species of the Malagasy Region by Brian L. Fisher, and a revision of the Austral epopostrumiform genera by Steven O. Shattuck. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 65:1-1028.